Hope! And Change! Part Two

Not one, but three rather public, rather unseemly associates of Barack Obama.

But if you are one of the Obama apologists, defenders, supporters or a member of the media (oh, sorry, that last was three times redundant, wasn’t it?) even you should be disturbed by the sworn testimony offered in court today. Testimony that appears to tie the Obama campaign to an attempt to scurry around campaign finance laws and provide money to yet another unsavory organization closely tied to Obama.

First off, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign gave an ACORN-affiliated group a “donor list” last year for fundraising efforts.

That, at least, was the testimony today of a former staffer for Project Vote, a voter education and registration group that focuses on “low-income, minority, and other disenfranchised communities requires a comprehensive approach.” The hearing was part of a Pennsylvania Republican Party lawsuit aimed at curbing voter fraud in next week’s election.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Anita Moncrief, a former Washington, D.C. staffer for Project Vote, which she described as a sister organization of ACORN, said her supervisor told her the list of campaign contributors came from the Obama campaign. Moncrief said she has a copy of a “development plan” that outlines how Obama contributors who had “maxed out” under federal campaign contribution limits would be targeted to give to Project Vote. It was her job to identify such contributors.

But even potentially more damaging, Moncrief also said she took a call from an Obama campaign worker inquiring whether it was the same organization Obama had worked with in the 1990’s. She claims she received several warnings to “back off” from testifying by various ACORN workers, and said the incentive to churn out more voter registration cards was cold, hard cash.